Helmut Wimmer
Encyclopedia
Helmut Wimmer was a painter who, as the staff artist for New York's Hayden Planetarium
from 1954 to 1987, created representations of cosmic vistas which were used during the planetarium shows.
Born in Munich, at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a sculptor and architectural model maker. Taken as prisoner of war by the Russians while serving in the German army, his talents were noticed and he was assigned to a team tasked with the repair of the ornamental plaster works of the government buildings in Gorky
.
In addition to work used in planetarium shows, Wimmer provided illustrations for numerous astronomy books and text books, and his work frequently appeared in the American Museum's Natural History
magazine. Of particular note is his 1971 illustration for Physics Today
, entitled Artist's Rendition of a Black Hole - a "colorful schematic concept of black hole phenomena [which] has been copied extensively, sometimes without proper credit."
He also designed an educational children's board game entitled "Space Hop
", which was published by Teaching Concepts in 1973. The game taught players about the sun and its planets, moons, comets and asteroids.
Hayden Planetarium
The Hayden Planetarium is a public planetarium, part of the Rose Center for Earth and Space of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, currently directed by astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson....
from 1954 to 1987, created representations of cosmic vistas which were used during the planetarium shows.
Born in Munich, at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a sculptor and architectural model maker. Taken as prisoner of war by the Russians while serving in the German army, his talents were noticed and he was assigned to a team tasked with the repair of the ornamental plaster works of the government buildings in Gorky
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
.
In addition to work used in planetarium shows, Wimmer provided illustrations for numerous astronomy books and text books, and his work frequently appeared in the American Museum's Natural History
Natural History (magazine)
Natural History is an American natural history magazine. The stated mission of the magazine is to promote public understanding and appreciation of nature and science.- History :...
magazine. Of particular note is his 1971 illustration for Physics Today
Physics Today
Physics Today, created in 1948, is the membership journal of the American Institute of Physics. It is provided to 130,000 members of twelve physics societies, including the American Physical Society...
, entitled Artist's Rendition of a Black Hole - a "colorful schematic concept of black hole phenomena [which] has been copied extensively, sometimes without proper credit."
He also designed an educational children's board game entitled "Space Hop
Space Hop
Space Hop is a board game published by Teaching Concepts and designed by Helmut Wimmer, a resident artist at New York's Hayden Planetarium. It is an educational game designed to teach children about the stars and planets....
", which was published by Teaching Concepts in 1973. The game taught players about the sun and its planets, moons, comets and asteroids.